Now let us consider the major factor in our salvation, which is our will.

How do we find the place where God is free to work His will in us with a minimum of confusion?

As we mentioned previously, our normal love for the earth and the peoples of it has been perverted as the nature of Satan has pervaded the world spirit and made it an abomination to God and God's saints.

Our normal bodily appetites and soulish talents have been perverted by the satanic law of sin that dwells in our members, producing inflamed and nearly uncontrollable appetites and passions.

The same is true of our will. Our will is a gift of God. Apart from our will we would be puppets. But the spirit of Satan has infected our will from the days of the Garden of Eden, where Eve and Adam were taught to disobey God.

The human child is born with a self-seeking will and has to be taught obedience.

The nature of Antichrist is that of self-rule. We become our own god. This is what Satan desires above all else, for when he can remove us from the will of God he has no problem persuading us to do his (Satan's) will.

When the spirit of worldliness has been removed from us our natural love for the earth and its peoples is released into wholesome joy and peace.

When the law of sin has been removed from the members of our body we are free to enjoy all that God has placed in the physical realm—which, by the way, is superior to the spirit realm.

When we have accepted the dealings of God with us our will is released from the bondage of self-will. We cease from our own works and enter that supreme state of being where God's will and our will are one and the same. There is no other treasure as great as this.

Every saint who returns with the Lord Jesus to install the Kingdom of God on the earth will have been released from worldliness, from the law of sin in his members, and from self-seeking and self-will. Such release is one-half of the total objective of the Christian redemption. The other half is the birth and growth of Christ, of the Divine Nature, in us and the filling of our entire personality—body, soul, and spirit—with the Spirit of God. The redemption of our body includes raising it from the dead and clothing it with the body from Heaven.

All of this marvelous redemption depends on the choices we make. Since our choices are made by our will, it is of the greatest importance that our will become one with the will of God.

Having our will become one with the will of God does not mean we have no will of our own. Quite the contrary! Our will must remain razor sharp if we are to grasp that for which we have been grasped by the Lord.

Rather, we are to look constantly to the Lord to find out what His will is, what He is doing in a given situation.

To be continued.